tomato soup with chicken, pesto and iggy's croutons

A few weeks back at the Eveleigh market I scored the best over ripe/not so perfect heirloom tomatoes, you might call them rejects. To me they were perfection and perfect for what I was craving.
Tomato Soup!

As to make it extra nourishing I made my chicken in a pot. That way I would have stock for the soup and the slow cooked melting chicken flesh for in the actual soup.



for the Tomato Soup you'll need (roughly);
1kg of very ripe tomatoes (heirloom if you can get your hands on them) or cherry tomatoes work well too.
2-3 french shallots or eschalots (whatever you call them) or 1large red onion
4-5 small cloves of garlic
a handful of sage
2-3 sprigs of rosemary
olive oil
salt and pepper
chilli optional



for the pesto you'll need;
in a blender put...
a couple of handfuls of basil leaves (washed)
olive oil (depends on how runny you like it)
one small clove of garlic
a good handful of grated parmesan
salt and pepper
a little squeeze of lemon
blend
for the bagel croutons;
1-2 iggy's bagels (preferably a day or two old and seeded are the bomb)
cut into bite size cubes
drizzled in extra virgin olive oil
sprinkled with crushed chilli and salt
fryed in clarified butter until crunchy and golden
serve immediately.



so easy to make;
wash and cut your tomatoes
place them in a baking tray along with...
the eschalots or onion cut in quarters and garlic cloves whole
the sprigs of rosemary and the sage
give it all a good drenching with extra virgin olive oil and season
bake in the oven at 150c for 2 hours
when the 2 hours are up put your slow cooked tomatoes in a saucepan and cover with chicken stock or if you're a vegetarian water will be fine.
bring to a simmer and leave it for 10 min or so.
then pass it through a sieve until only the skins, seeds and herbs are left (remembering to scrap the bottom of the sieve every now and again)
check your seasoning

to serve;
simply serve in bowls with pieces of chicken from your stock (if you didn't make my chicken in a pot for this you won't have any chicken but its still delicious without)
a couple of teaspoons of the pesto and a really decent handful of the iggy's croutons (and some extras on the side for when you run out)
serves at least 6 with leftovers for the freezer

This is definitely one of my all time top five favourite soups!

©Michelle Schoeps 2013

All recipes and photos by Michelle Schoeps

The beginning : Michelle Schoeps Organic

I love feeding my family incredible food. It really is my favourite thing in the whole world to do — sourcing the best seasonal ingredients, cooking, creating recipes and eating — nothing makes me happier.
If you've read my blog or follow me on Instagram you'll know I have three kids, I'm living the craziness that is family, I really know how busy it can get and so I want to share with you how easy it can be to still feed them simple, delicious, healthy food.
 
Why make a video? I couldn't think of a better way of showing people that even if someone as disorganised as me can get it together, anyone can! And also now I can share special easy recipes with my family and friends.

Michelle Schoeps Organic from michelle Schoeps on Vimeo.


I need to thank my special friends and family who helped me put this together Joshua Heath  best camera man in the business. Claire Evans producer extraordinaire and her other half David Cannings for piecing this video together. Megan Morton stylist to the stars and my own personal fluffer.  Max Doyle my boyfriend / DOP / father of my children. And then the monsters themselves Mima, Frank and Wilco for showing your true colours on the day, hopefully we'll see more of your magic in front of the camera in coming episodes and last but not least my personal cleaner upperer Mazzy. Without all of their expertise this would never have become a reality.

©Michelle Schoeps 2013

All photos taken by Michelle Schoeps

Raw Cacao Treats

Everyone has a view on eating and what is and isn't good for you. Personally I've changed my mind several times – tried this and that and on more than one occasion given my opinion on what I believe are the best foods to eat. I'm very opinionated when it comes to the food,and what we should and shouldn't eat and even more so when it concerns the health of our children. My closest girlfriends think I'm a bit of a know it all about all thing's food related,'Eddy the expert'.I can't help myself, the health of all children is foremost in my brain, they are our future I want them to be well, not just mine but my kids future partners and then hopefully their children.

Everyone needs to watch the documentary 'The perfect human diet' if not only for the simple facts of human evolution and how all the facts about what we should put in our bodies are there in black and white. It's scared the pants off me. You could say it made me wake up, to a certain extent.

In our house at the moment I am trying really hard, not just with myself and Max but also with the children to eat very limited processed foods. I'm working overtime trying to make sure we all eat the best food possible for their growing bodies and our ageing ones. Max and I are eating very clean,unprocessed foods, no wheat, no grains. We 'are' eating animal fats and meat from pastured/grass fed free range animals, lots of vegetables, soaked activated nuts, raw milk cheese and cultured butter, coconuts, berries, pastured eggs, coconut butter etc...

I am trying really hard to limit processed foods from my kids mouths (without giving them a complex),of course I'm not naive, I know they will eat stuff I don't approve of but the majority of what they eat is great. I know I've won when my middle daughter is physically repulsed by all fast food chains, gold star for me on that one!

Jemima, all by herself came to me on Friday and said she wasn't going to eat sugar 6 days out of 7. That's huge for a 13 year old to come to that decision all by herself.

I've personally have had to change my eating habits drastically. I was pushed into it, thankfully. When Wilco's leg was broken my back problems reoccurred. This was in part from putting on 35kg in my first pregnancy some 13 years ago, almost doubling my weight(at the time). 

The time has come for me to get back to pre pregnancy weight and heal my bad back and find my core strength. This is going to take me somewhere between 6-12 months and my diet plays a big part in my recovery. It won't be easy. I will have a day here and there off, but 90% of the time I'll be on. My day to day eating will be documented on instagram if you want to follow me.

I'm going to need a few healthy treats to keep me going.

 

We were in Byron a few weeks back and I discovered fresh Almond milk.

Iced Almond milk coffee to be exact at The Roadhouse. This will be treat NO.1

So I decided I'd make my own. 

How hard could it be? Not hard at all! 

Almond milk would have to be the easiest thing to make - no jokes.

HOW TO MAKE ALMOND MILK:

 Soak 1 cup of organic almonds overnight in a little filtered water and a pinch of salt, then rinse them well the next day

 Pop them into a blender with 2-3 cups of filtered water (depending on how creamy you like your Almond milk)

Blitz till it's white and the almonds have broken down as much as possible

put it through a sieve or wring it out in a piece of Muslin

Till all the milk is extracted

With the leftover pulp make a cake. I'll post that next week.

My other delicious treats have been inspired by Sarah Wilson's new book. It's incredible and an eye opener I'm sure, for many people. Changing the way I'm eating has meant finding something that I can have when I'm craving the enemy and her Raspberry ripple recipe was just what I was looking for.But of course I couldn't just leave it the way it was, I've been experimenting ever since and all my creations have been delicious.

 Sarah Wilson's Raspberry Ripple the Michelle Schoeps Organic way:

What you'll need:1 small cup of blueberries

1 small cup of frozen raspberries

a decent handful of activated pecans

1/2 cup of coconut flakes - toasted

1/2 teaspoon of ground vanilla

1/2 teaspoon of ground cinnamon

1/2 teaspoon of best quality salt

2 heaped tablespoons of raw cacao powder

80g cultured or raw butter

1/2 cup coconut butter

2 - 3 tablespoons of rice malt syrup, maple or honey

HOW THE MAGIC IS ASSEMBLED:

Arrange your berries

Toast the coconut. Then brake it up a bit to scatter over the berries and nuts 

before finally pouring over the chocolate. 

Melt - butter & coconut butter together

 

add sweetener of your choice

mix well and then mix in the cacao powder, cinnamon, vanilla and salt

Pour this liquid over

 the yumminess arranged on your brown grease proof paper in your plate and pop it in the fridge to set.

We slice slivers when needed and stop our self from eating the whole thing.

That's when I decided I'd make tiny cupcake sized ones, the size of a little chocolate.

Get a mini muffin tray and fill all 25 holes with mini cupcake cases

in each cupcake case place....

2 little or 1 larger - blueberry and raspberry

1 pecan broken a little

a flake of 2 of toasted coconut

and then the liquid/cacao mix.

Pour into each case filling just before the top.

I also made 

Chocolate Coffee Pralines

HOW:

In a processor put 1/2 cup of pecans and 1/2 cup of hazelnuts

1/2 cup desiccated coconut

1/2 teaspoon cinnamon

1/2 teaspoon of vanilla

1/2 teaspoon of Himalayan salt

1 teaspoon of fresh coffee grounds (I used decaf)

blitz till fine crumbs appear

Melt your butters together (same measurements as in Sarah's recipe), add the sweetener of choice and cacao

and then in a bowl mix the dry and wet together

again put in mini cupcake cases and stick in the fridge

(These recipes make roughly 25 mini cupcake sized raw cacao treats, feel free to 1/2 quantities and make half a tray of two different flavours)

and then the last one...

For fussy Frank I made a chocolate crackle version.

Simply melt the butters together add a pinch of cinnamon and vanilla along with the cacao, 1/2 cup of desiccated coconut and good pinch of salt,  sweetness of choice - mix well

add a cup of brown rice bubbles (available at most supermarkets and health food stores)mix well (you might need to add a few more rice bubbles, depending)

put into mini or normal cupcake cases in muffin trays and in the fridge they go.

Frank likes these because they're not as full on or rich as your'normal' chocolate crackles.

So for the time being this is what I'm playing with and its both delicious and fun.

©Michelle Schoeps 2013

All photos taken by Michelle Schoeps

Raspberry Ripple recipe's adapted from Sarah Wilson's book I quit sugar.

The other book everyone should buy is Anthia Koullouros's 

I AM FOOD  just the most exquisite book in every way

Well and truly back at school

My kids are back at school. YAY!

Personally I'm a fan,it means a little peace and quiet on the home front and finally time to get some work done!
Safe to say I'm over the holidays!

Even though I'm happy to have them back at school,what they eat through the school day is very important to me,as important as everything else I feed my kids.

I'm always looking for balance and food that will feed their energy levels and brain the whole school day.

Because my kids are at very different stages they need different kinds of food and they like different things.

My 13year old needs interesting flavoursome food that is high in good fats so she doesn't crave sugar and rubbish food that she sometimes sneaks from her friends.

My 9 year old loves supper healthy food,crisp sour flavours with a little treat of some description and the baby who's almost 4 gets what he's given and happily eats it all.
 

My kids lunches consist of a couple of pieces of fruit in summer and winter, seaweed - nuts for the oldest one(the little ones aren't allowed them at school),cheese, raw veggies or salad, sliced salami or ham or my homemade chicken stock in winter and a piece of cake,cookie,raw cocoa ball or healthy chocolate crackle (homemade of course).  And when it's really hot a frozen fruit juice or coconut water is always a winner.

Here are links to a few recipes on my blog that are perfect for school lunches and freeze really well.

Banana and choc cake

Mima's white choc biscuits

chicken soup

bolognese

buffalo mozzarella, avocado, tomato salad

Whole milk or sheep's yogurt with either fresh or frozen berries, passion fruit and if they're allowed chopped activated nuts and seeds

Remember all food needs to be kept cold with frozen ice bricks and a big insulated drink bottle, which is a must. BPA free plastic containers to store food in or better still glass ones.

And to celebrate my children going back to school I have a little giveaway.

I was sent these Sunraysia Organic juices to try out with my kids. I'm not big on giving my kids fruit juice but every now and again is fine. This was a special treat and they loved them - especially frozen!

This is my first giveaway and given the amount of comments I get your chances are pretty high at winning it!

I guess you're wondering what it is you'll win?!

The prize up for grabs is....

40 Sunraysia Organic pouches of juice - 10 of each flavour and an eco shopper bag - at the value of $70.

There'll be one lucky winner - who will it be?!

Leave a comment and I will randomly pick a winner next Sunday 3rd March 2013

only enter if you live in Australia

Sunraysia Juices are 100% Organic and available from supermarkets nationally at $1.49RRP each or 5 for $5.00 at selected stores.

©Michelle Schoeps 2013

All photos taken by Michelle Schoeps